Vista to take hard stand against piracy

Yahoo News is reporting that Microsoft will get even more aggressive in their efforts to curtail piracy with Vista. As if product activation and the WGA program weren't bad enough, MS now plans to restrict access to a system if the company "believes" it's running a pirated version of Vista...

"The world's largest software maker said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology. If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager."

I'm all for protecting IP, but all of these measures end up hurting legit users as well. There are reports that upwards of 40% of the support inquiries for the current WGA program are from legit users, and a couple of us here on HH have even had to contend with activation issues when using legitimate product keys. Heck, maybe the DiceMan is right?

And a week after Vista is officially released, we'll be reporting that all of MS' anti-piracy measures have been cracked by 12 year old with a TRS-80 anyway.